Tag Archives: hamilton island race week

With blue, sparkling waters, acres of unspoilt, uninhabited land, calm beaches and plenty of dining options, Hamilton Island is a gorgeous vacation spot. I visited the Island for a family holiday a few years ago and have great memories of long, happy days spent swimming, sunbathing and nipping around the island in a little golf buggy. However, my recent visit during Audi Hamilton Island Race Week, Australia’s largest offshore yachting regatta, was an opportunity to experience Hamilton Island at its busiest and best.

Audi Hamilton Island Race Week Launch, Hamilton Island Yacht Club

As I make my way up the gangway to the Yacht Club for the launch of Audi Hamilton Island Week, I’m favourably impressed. All the staff I meet during my stay on Hamilton Island are extremely professional and seem to genuinely like what they do.

You have to love a party when you’re offered canapés before you even reach the official venue. First up, I’m offered some beef pies with tomato sauce.

Next I’m presented with a tower of scallops, prawn and bacon skewers. Come to mama!

I’m still smacking my  lips when I’m offered a tuna sushi spoon. I love the presentation but they’re just a little tricky to manage in one bite…

There are plenty of waiters circling with other canapés but after reaching the deck and finding some media friends I head straight for the seafood bar. Well, can you blame me?

Oysters, prawns and champagne – it’s pretty much my perfect start to an evening.

Inspired by sails in silhouette The Hamilton Island Yacht Club was designed by  Australian architect Walter Barda.

As night falls, Race Week is officially launched and Bob Oatley, owner of Hamilton Island, impresses the crowd with his razor-sharp wit and his great courtesy as he acknowledges the many racing legends present and pays tribute to the staff of Hamilton Island.

Bob has had enormous success in the wine, coffee, tourism and yachting industries and Hamilton Island happily combines many of his passions. He is 84 years old but clearly has no intention of slowing down; last week it was confirmed that Australia — via Bob and the Hamilton Island Yacht Club — is the Challenger of Record for the next America’s Cup.

Cantonese Style Banquet by Kylie Kwong (Billy Kwong)

The deck at the Hamilton Island Yacht Club is also the setting for today’s Cantonese style lunch by Kylie Kwong, which is being hosted by Audi, major sponsor of Race Week.

As far as views go, you can’t really get much better than this. Later on, we will witness the spectacular sight of the boats heading out to the starting line for the first race.

It’s a gorgeous day. The sunlight is so bright everybody is wearing shades.

Sydney chef Kylie Kwong made her name with her popular restaurant Billy Kwong in Sydney’s Surrey Hills. Since then she’s gone onto host her own TV series and publish numerous cookbooks. I’ve never actually eaten at her restaurant but was given one of her cookbooks so I’m looking forward to the lunch today.

Before the lunch host Sandra Sully (Channel 10) introduces Kylie to talk us through the menu.

First up, some pickled vegetables.

Now I’ve eaten a lot of Chinese pickles over the year, bought from stores and food fairs and gifted by relatives and friends. But I have to say that these are hands down the best pickles I’ve ever had. The quality of the produce was outstanding and the team at Billy Kwong had brought out the flavours with a subtle yet flavourful mix of vinegar and oil.

Next up were mini tarts filled with roasted pumpkin and black bean vinaigrette.

I’d never come across pumpkin served with black bean before but Kylie assures me afterwards that pumpkin and black bean are often paired together in parts of China. These tarts were fantastic, with a great balance of flavours between the sweetness of the pumpkin and saltiness of the black bean. I had three and would have have happily eaten four.

Vegetable dumplings are served next and they’re bursting with the goodness of greens.

The wrapper is perfect – thin but sturdy enough to keep the substantial filling contained. The dumplings are served with a thin hoisin-y sauce.

Next we are served some shrimp wontons with a mildly tangy dipping sauce.

Crispy and piping hot, they are full of shrimpy goodness.

Next, stewed eggplant or pork is served with pancakes so people can make their own wraps a la Peking Duck. The eggplant is rich and flavourful if a trifle sloppy in the pancake.

The next dish is mini crispy salt bush cakes with home-made chilli sauce.

I like the juxtaposition of native Australian ingredients — saltbush — into a Chinese style pastry and the pastry has a a marvellously crispy texture. The chilli sauce is outstanding – rich, flavourful and a perfect blend of hot, salty, sweet and savoury.

My seat mate has a food allergy so was served a special silken tofu dish in lieu of some of the other dishes. I really like this dish – the flavours are mild but well balanced and the presentation is gorgeous. I’ll be making this at home.

Next we are served Steamed Scallop Dumplings with Sichuan Chilli Oil.

I love Sichuan food and ate it regularly when I lived in China. I like these dumplings but I do think that delicate flavour of the scallops is a bit overwhelmed by the fiery oil infused with chillies and Szechuan peppercorns.

For the last course, Kylie has put an Australian spin on a Chinese classic.

Zhongzi — or steamed rice parcels — are boiled rice parcels traditionally made with pork, chinese sausage, chestnut, mushrooms and soy sauce wrapped in lotus leaves. Kylie’s take on zhongi features organic macadamias, goji berries and salted radish. This is fusion food executed with style and flair.

With all the dishes being made using organic, sustainably harvested produce, today’s lunch was like an upmarket version of yum cha (dim sum), traditionally served for brunch at Cantonese restaurants. I didn’t think anything could top my usual, beloved yum cha experience — catching up with family and friends, bamboo steamers crowed on a lazy susan, noisy restaurant, messy kids, and pot after pot of steaming hot tea — but today’s lunch comes pretty darn close.

’30’ Dinner by Shannon Bennet (Vue de Monde) and 4 of his protégés

Freshly shaved truffle? Don’t mind if I do.

My final night on Hamilton Island is one of unabashed, push-the-boat-out glamour. To celebrate 30 years of Race Week, Audi host a ’30’ dinner in the grounds of Qualia, voted Best Resort in the Word in 2012. The ’30’ dinners features Shannon Bennet (Vue de Monde) and four of his protégés, who are all under 30 years old.

The courses will proceed as follows:

1. Canapés by Jim McDougall, previously Vue de Monde‘s Sous Chef and Café Vue 401’s Head Chef and now part-owner and Head Chef at two-hatted Stefano’s),
2. 1st course by Josh Lewis, previously of Vue de Monde and most recently at Loam;
3. 2nd course by Cory Campbell previously of Copenhagen’s Noma and now Vue de Monde’s Head Chef;
4. 3rd course by Shannon Bennett & Cory Campbell; and
5. 4th course by Darren Purchese, pastry chef at Vue de Monde, and now owner of Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio.

Owing to a mixup — I was working off an old itinerary — I arrive at the ’30’ dinner just when everyone is sitting down to eat, having missed a synchronised swimming display featuring Colette Dinnigan swimwear and pre-dinner snacks by Jim McDougall. Damn.

The first course is by Josh Lewis and consists of raw local fish, raw nori, bone marrow and sea lettuce.

On the plate it looks interesting but not overly striking. Once in the mouth though, this dish is absolutely stunning. I’m a big fan of marrowbone — its flavour and texture is exquisite — and here it has been daintily cooked and plated alongside raw fish, nori powder and just cooked sea lettuce. It’s so simple and yet so beautifully executed.

The next course by Cory Campbell proves to be more challenging for some at the table.

For his dish Cory has used a whole prawn in three different ways: the shelled body is served raw — sashimi style — the head is steamed and the shell and legs have been fried.  A mound of wasabi sorbet slowly melts away on the plate while a sauce replete with fragrant prawn stock and the richness of seaweed salted duck yolk has been gently spooned over a furl of mustard greens.

There are a lot of different elements going on in this ambitious dish – as someone who happily boils prawn heads and shells to make prawn stock I can appreciate where he’s going with this but other people seated near me are a little underwhelmed.

The third course is by Cory and Shannon and is a dish of barbecued beef, beetroot, saltbush and truffle. Beef is served two ways: medium-rare steak fillet and pressed crispy beef (the beef is slow-cooked, shredded, moulded and then pan-fried so the outer layer develops a crispy crust).

Fresh truffle is grated on the plate table-side by Chef, and the fragrance is incredible. I really like this rather bloody looking dish but I can’t help wishing that some green vegetables or salad leaves were served with it as it’s quite a rich dish. But this is a minor point.

The next course is dessert by Darren Burch and my seat mates are presented with passionfruit sago pudding.

I love a good sago dessert and this one looks pretty as a picture. Back home, it inspires me to make my own (much simpler) sago dessert: Passionfruit Sago Pudding.

I’m offered the dairy-free dessert option – berries in jelly.

Berry jelly, berry gels and fresh strawberries prove to be a winning combination. The contrast of textures is sublime while the tartness of the berries nicely balances the sweetness of the jelly.

We’re then invited to visit the  magnificent dessert buffet set up by Burch & Purchese featuring cake pops, truffles, French mendiants, chocolates, chocolate bark, and lemon curd tarts. I pop half a dozen in my mouth — not all at once — and the quality is outstanding. Thoughtfully, ‘doggy bags’ are provided for guests to take some desserts home with them. In my case, I take a selection of treats all the way back to Adelaide for my delighted children.

At the end of the dinner all the Chefs are invited on stage to take a well-deserved bow.

It’s been a fantastic night executed with nary a hitch. The collaborative nature of this dinner — five Chefs and colleagues coming together to create a special dinner — really appeals to me and I can only be thankful that I was able to experience it.

Hamilton Island: you sure do know how to show a girl a good time. I guess it just proves the old saying: too much of good thing can be wonderful.

Address book

Audi Hamilton Island Race Week: Held every July on Hamilton Island, Whitsundays.

Hamilton Island Yacht Club: bookings can be made at the Bommie Restaurant and Deck for meals or drinks. Telephone: +61 7 4948 9433.

Billy Kwong: Shop 3, 355 Crown Street, Surry Hills, NSW. Tel: +61 2 9332 3300 or email: enquiries@kyliekwong.org.

Vue de Monde: Level 55, Rialto, 525 Collins Street, Melbourne, VIC. Tel: +61 3 9691 3888 or email: vuedemonde@vuedemonde.com.au. You can book a table here.

Stefano’s: Cellars of the Grand Hotel, Langtree Avenue, Mildura, VIC. Tel: +61 (3) 5022 0881 or email: info@stefano.com.au

Burch & Purchese: 647 Chapel Street, South Yarra, VIC. Tel: +613 9827 7060 or email: info@burchandpurchese.com

Qualia: Hamilton Island. For reservations email: reservations@qualia.com.au or check out reservations.

More Hamilton Island posts

• Wild Oats Ladies Lunch and Audi Hamilton Island Race Week
• Passionfruit Sago Puddings

Disclosure

I attended Hamilton Island Race Week as a guest of the Island. All flights, accommodation and meals were courtesy of the host. As always, all opinions are my own.

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Hamilton Island

A few weeks ago I travelled to Hamilton Island in the glorious Whitsundays for the beginning of Audi Hamilton Island Race Week, Australia’s largest offshore yachting regatta.

2013 marked the race’s 30th year so to celebrate, Hamilton Island and event sponsor Audi hosted a series of special events with leading Australian chefs Shannon Bennet (Vue de Monde), Matt Moran, Kylie Kwong and Adriano Zumbo.

I last visited Hamilton Island in 2008 for a laid-back family holiday so it was fantastic to visit the Island again at its busiest and most exciting – Race Week is the biggest event on the island’s calendar, attracting around 5,000 people over the week to both its on-water and off-water events.

This post — the first about my trip — covers the Wild Oats Ladies Lunch with Adriano Zumbo and a boat trip to witness the start of the racing.

Wild Oats Ladies Lunch with Adriano Zumbo

Each year Hamilton Island hosts the Wild Oats Ladies Lunch the day before the racing kicks off. The Lunch is an opportunity for female visitors and island dwellers alike to frock up and enjoy some lovely food and company. This year the lunch was held at Romano’s, the Italian restaurant on Front Street at the very edge of the water. I’d eaten here previously in 2008 and remembered the food being very good.

Today the restaurant has rearranged its usual tables into longer tables for the Ladies Lunch.

The restaurant is right on the harbour, which means that I and the other ladies seated on my side of the table enjoy a view of sparkling blue waters and equally sparkling boats.

First up, we are served some focaccia with fetta and tapenade.

The focaccia is gorgeous, with a dense crumb and a wonderful flavour enhanced by a sprinkle of salt flakes and aromatic herbs. The creaminess of the fetta and the saltiness of the olive tapenade makes a welcome change from the usual butter or balsamic vinegar and oil.

Next, the appetiser is served. It’s an antipasti plate comprising freshly shucked oysters, garlicky king prawns, tender squid, green and Kalamatta olives, marinated artichokes, proscuitto, melon, wagyu beef bresola, salami and the most amazingly crisp Sadrinian flat bread.

This is the kind of food I could happily eat for lunch every day – the quality of the different ingredients is top-notch, the flavours are strong and clean, everything tastes so fresh and the there’s enough salt and fat to satisfy me. Presentation-wise, a larger platter would have been better — here everything seems piled on top of each other — but this is a minor point.

Next, the main courses start to appear. First up is a yellow bean salad with pancetta and roasted garlic. Any kind of bean tends to be enhanced by a smoked meat and this salad is no exception. It’s full of flavour, the beans are cooked perfectly and I love the roasted garlic cloves scattered throughout.

In the background is a heirloom tomato salad. I’d have liked a little more onion or shallots but tomatoes, soft cheese and fresh basil leaves are a classic combination for good reason.

Next, we’re served some lamb cutlets, almost hidden under a layer of greens.

The lamb is succulent and tender and goes perfectly with the just cooked asparagus, fresh rocket, slivered red onions and aged balsamic vinegar.

Next up is a colourful roasted vegetable, poppy seed and baby spinach salad.

This salad is delicious – so simple and yet so tasty. This is something you could easily throw together at home. Roast some pumpkin, carrots and potatoes with olive oil and salt and when they’re cool, toss them with baby spinach, poppy seeds and a light vinaigrette.

Next, we have gnocchi in a creamy pumpkin sauce with scattered blue cheese, walnuts and rockets.

This is probably my least favourite dish – I like all the individual ingredients but together, this dish just doesn’t hit any strong notes for me.

The risotto with salmon, on the other hand, is creamy, rich and full of flavour. Everyone knows that risotto is all about achieving that delightfully creamy texture. But risotto is also about working flavour into the dish via a good stock and carefully selected ingredients. Here the salmon has been simply cooked and leeks have been julienned and deep-fried to add an interesting texture and additional onion flavour to the dish. It’s extremely good.

To accompany each course we are offered a selection of Wild Oats wines. I’m not a big drinker so am satisfied with a sip or three of each kind. Wild Oats is one of the labels created by Robert Oatley, owner of Hamilton Island. Oatley is no slouch in the wine game – his previous wine success includes the creation of Rosemount Estate in the Hunter Valley and he produced his first commercial vintages in the early 1970s.

Dessert today is by Adriano Zumbo, Sydney patissier extraordinare.

On the menu we have cannoli with olive oil and lemon custard, mini tiramisu and mini ‘panini’ with rice pudding, fresh basil and berries.

The cannolo is so crisp and brittle it shatters under my teeth while the lemon and oil custard is creamy, rich and intensely flavoured. Gorgeous stuff. I don’t usually like tiramisu but I happily eat this one and am intrigued by the use of pine nuts in the crumb topping. The stand-out, for me, however, is the mini ‘panini’ with rice pudding, fresh basil & berries. The ‘panini’ tastes like a sugared, deep-fried croissant and it’s topped by a wholly delectable spoonful of vanilla rice pudding, fresh basil leaf and strawberry. It doesn’t sound like much when it’s written down like this but believe me when I tell you it’s sheer genius. In fact, it’s so good I eat three of them.

Afterwards our charming host invites Adriano to say a few words.

Adriano talks about how he got started and reveals that his first shop in Sydney was so tiny that queues would form in the street. He’s come a long way since those early days; nowadays he has a number of retail outlets, cookbooks, numerous TV credits and a line of packet desserts at Coles.

The women at the Lunch love Adriano. When his tattoo is mentioned, some ladies get quite excited and implore him to take off his  jacket so he can show them. Ever the professional, he changes into a more accessible top and obliges. (In case you’re wondering, his tattoo is on his arm). What a guy. And what gorgeous desserts he makes.

Wild Oats Ladies Lunch
$140 per person included a three course luncheon, a glass of Piper-Heidsieck on arrival and matching Wild Oats Wines
Romanos
Front Street, Hamilton Island
Phone: (07) 4946 8212. 

Audi Hamilton Island Race Week

The next day I join a small group of journalists and PRs on the media boat for the start of the first race. This year around 150 yachts are taking part in Race Week.

It’s wonderful being out on the water.

The skipper takes as out as close as he can to the yachts, which are tacking to and fro as they wait for the starter siren; they want to be as close to the starting line as possible when that siren goes off. I’d forgotten how graceful yachts are as they cut through the water, and how amazingly quick they are to change direction – it’s no doubt just the angle from our boat but from here it looks like some yachts came dangerously close to colliding.

All the boats are different sizes, which seems odd to me, as surely the larger boats would have the advantage?  It’s soon explained that all of the boats are classified according to size and given different starting times to ensure a fair race.

I’m so glad we are able to be here for the start of the race. Seeing so many boats out to sea all at the same time is a stunning sight.

As we enjoy the spectacle, we’re offered cheese and crackers, fruit and champagne. Fig paste, dried grapes and fresh figs go superbly with the cheddar, brie and cream cheese.

As I stretch out my legs out for a more even tan and pop yet another piece of fruit in my mouth, I think to myself, yep, I could get used to this.

Audi Hamilton Island Race Week
Every year during August
Hamilton Island, Whitsundays

Disclosure: I visited Hamilton Island as a guest of the Island. As always, all opinions are my own. More on my trip coming soon.

Last week I was lucky to spend three days on Hamilton Island for the start of Audi Hamilton Island Race Week, Australia’s largest offshore yachting regatta. It was ultra glam and très chic and I did my best to nod intelligently to the sailing talk while outfitted in my approximation of ‘resort chic.’

I have oodles of lovely photos and experiences from Hamilton Island to share with you over the next few weeks but in the meantime, I want to share this lovely Passionfruit Sago Pudding with you.

This dessert is inspired by the dessert at the spectacular ’30’ dinner I attended on Sunday night to celebrate 30 years of the Race by Shannon Bennet of Vue de Monde and four of his proteges – Jim McDougall of Stefano’s, Josh Lewis of Loam, Cory Campbell of Vue de Monde and Darren Purchese of Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio.

I didn’t actually taste the sago dessert at the dinner — I had a berry jelly dessert instead — but I’ve used  palm sugar, ginger, star anise and coconut to  bring out the tropical, feel-good flavour of the passionfruit. The ’30’ dessert  looked completely different to mine, too — my presentation is much less fancy — so please consider this a homage rather than a pale imitation.

If you’ve never cooked with sago (tapioca) before, don’t be scared. Tapioca is really cheap and really straightforward to cook – you just bung it in a saucepan with some water. Honestly. It’s not hard. You can do it. And your reward will be these delightful little sago puddings that remind me of long, lazy days spent happily in the sun.

Passionfruit Sago Puddings

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup water
• 100 grams palm sugar
• 1 star anise
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean essence
• 4 cups water
• 3/4 cup sago (tapioca)
• 1/3 cup coconut cream
• 8 best quality ginger cookies (about 140 grams)
• 8 passionfruit
• 5 tablespoons shredded coconut

METHOD

• Make sugar syrup by placing 1 cup water, palm sugar, star anise + vanilla bean essence in a small pot.
• Bring to the boil and then cook over a medium heat for 15 minutes until mixture has reduced and become syrupy.
• Cook sago by placing 4 cups water + sago in a medium pot.
• Bring to the boil and then simmer for around 15 minutes, stirring regularly.
• Strain tapioca through a colander (sieve) and then place in a large bowl.
• Add sugar syrup and coconut cream to sago and mix to combine thoroughly.
• Grind biscuits in a food processor until it reassembles bread crumbs.
• Divide the biscuit mixture into four medium cups evenly.
• Spoon over sago mixture and then refrigerate for at least an hour.
• Meanwhile, toast the shredded coconut by stirring it in a dry pan (don’t use oil) over a medium heat until it starts to turn brown. Remove and set aside.
• To serve, spoon the passionfruit pulp over the top of the sago and garnish with toasted coconut.

Serves 4.

Dietary Notes: dairy free, nut free, vegan, and vegetarian. Can also be gluten-free if you use gluten-free biscuits as I did. 

{ Disclosure: I visited Hamilton Island as a guest of the island.}